2015/12/20

KARATE

KARATE

Seiya se se se seiya.
Seiya se se se seiya.
Soiya so so so soiya.
Soiya so so so soiya.

[Ossu.] Even if tears spill from our eyes,
[Ossu.] let's confront it!

Single-mindedly, seiya soiya, let's fight on
with our fists more... with our spirits more...
with making all sharper.
[Wo'oh wo'oh wo'oh.]
Still more, seiya soiya, let's fight on
even if we get sad and unable to stand up.
[Ah ossu ossu.]

Seiya se se se seiya.
Seiya se se se seiya.
Soiya so so so soiya.
Soiya so so so soiya.

[Ossu.] Even if our spirits are broken,
[Ossu.] let's confront it!

Single-mindedly, seiya soiya, let's fight on
with our fists more... with our spirits more...
with making all sharper.
[Wo'oh wo'oh wo'oh]
Still more, seiya soiya, let's fight on
even if we get sad and unable to stand up.

Single-mindedly, seiya soiya, let's fight on
with our fists more... with our spirits more...
with making all sharper.
[Wo'oh wo'oh wo'oh.]
Still more, seiya soiya, let's fight on
even if we get sad and unable to stand up.

[i] About the Performance & the Lyrics of This Song

This tune was performed for the first time on 2015 Dec. 12th at Yokohama Arena. Since then, it was tentatively called "Seiya" or "Karate". On 2016 Feb. 26th, this tune was released (download-only) as the preceding single of the second album.

I feel it strange that, though this is a song of fighting spirit, the latter part of this tune doesn't seem to have enough of it.

[ii] About Karate

The choreography and the lyrics of this song contain some elements from karate, but I don't know to what extent they are true to karate.

Karate is a martial art developed in Ryûkyû Kingdom (now belonging to Japan and called "Okinawa"). Karate was introduced to mainland Japan in 1920s. Unlike judo, karate is a striking martial art using punching, kicking, etc. The practice of karate is to master "kata" (= formalized sequences of movements). In a match of traditional karate schools, punching, kicking, etc. must be stopped just before hitting to prevent injury (this is called "寸止め" (sundome) ), but there are also full-contact karate schools.

In general, Japanese martial arts place great importance on the spirit of courtesy. Mental strength is needed to achieve top performance and seriousness is needed to prevent injury in practice. Thus martial arts have become ways of completing one's character through hard training.

[iii] About the Call and Response in Concerts

In the concerts from 2016 may onwards (as of 2017 Jan.), the call & response has been inserted in the middle part repeating "Wo'oh, wo'oh, wo'oh", and the audience are requested to jump at the end. There have been some differences according to time and place, and I'm sorry if I misheard them.

Notes

"Seiya" & "soiya" seem to be the shouts of some karate school that are uttered with punching, kicking, etc. The shouts of other karate schools and other martial arts seem a bit simpler.
"Se se se" & "so so so" are mere meaningless repetitions. I changed the notation "sessesse"/"sossosso" to "se se se"/"so so so" according to the official lyric (appended on 2016 Oct 8).

"Ossu" (オッス) is probably an abbreviation of "ohayoo gozai masu" (= good morning). The ending "u" is usually unvoiced. It is an easy greeting (like "hi") used by boys & young guys. Among martial artists, however, the tone is hard and it is often used like "yes, sir!" of military greeting. To distinguish this, martial artists' "ossu" is often written as "押忍". These kanji mean to push and to restrain oneself.

The Original line has no grammatical object. I supplement the sentence with "it" which refers to some difficulty that is not told in these lyrics.

"-nda" (= no da) grammatically corresponds to "it is the case that ..." and the original line has no grammatical subject. In this context, it probably expresses "I will (fight)", "we should (fight)" or the imperative mood.
"Yukoo ze" in the preceding line means "let's (go)", so I take "-nda" this way and I complement several sentences with "we" & "our" (the original lyrics have none for personal pronoun).

Listening to the song, this line sounds to me as if (imperative) sentences missing verbs, i.e. "[verb] our fists more [adj.]! [verb] our spirits more [adj.]!". Probably these phrases are examples of the next line ([verb]="make", [adj.]=" sharp").

Here are three "so" (so so so) since the first performance. I'm sorry for missing the first "so".

It means "even if somebody/something discourage us". Japanese usually uses the intransitive verb (= "oreru") rather than the passive form of the transitive verb (= "orareru"), so this form suggests that one is conscious of the external cause.

In the studio take, MOAMETAL & YUIMETAL may have sung these lines with or instead of SU-METAL as Sakura Metal san on 2016 Jun. 28 pointed out, but I'm not sure because the audio processing made them ambiguous. In the live performances, SU-METAL's lips move with these lines and MOAMETAL's & YUIMETAL's lips move with "wo'oh, wo'oh, wo'oh". (Added on 2017 Mar. 31.)

"Run!" might be inappropriate here if taken as "run away" or "escape" (as commented by Halfi Desfarizly san on 2016 Nov. 4th), but the interpretation of "Hashire!" is difficult. Usually not "Hashire!" but "Ike!" (= Go!) or "Susume!" (= Advance!) is used to command an attack. "Hashire!" means a physical movement, but I'm not sure which direction (towards or away from the enemy) the lyric writer has in mind because guerrillas never give up but often run away. (Added on 2017 Jan. 20.)

On the first & second performance (2015 Dec. 12th&13th), one line was inserted before these lines and both sequences were "Hashire! / [Seiya soiya tatakau-nda] / [zenbu zenbu togisumashite]".

Soiya is also chanted in much the same way at Sanja Matsuri, a religious Shinto festival praising the Kami of three men who were part of the forming of a temple, so there could be a more spiritual side to this word, maybe linked somehow to Shintoism.

Thank you for comment. I can find no explanation about the spiritual meanings of these festival chants, so I don't think there is some spiritual relation between festival chants and karate shouts. Of course, "soiya" & "seiya" are uttered as chants in some Japanese festivals, but they seem to be new words (reported only in 1977 or so, not yet found in the largest Japanese dictionary) and old people seem to complain about these chants. However, because karate has its origin in Okinawa, out of Yamato, these karate shouts may have some other spiritual meanings that most Yamato people don't know.

Hi! Since I listened to this song I wondered if the word 'seiya' could have something to do with the main hero of the 'Saint Seiya' anime/manga. Wikipedia says the word 'seiya' means 'star arrow' (星矢) or 'holy (saint) arrow' if written like this: 聖矢 Just asking.

I think this is my first comment here but I've been following this site for a couple of years... Thanks a million Mr. Du Enki, your work is priceless!

Thank you for comment. There is a possibility that some karate master loves Saint Seiya and the shout of his/her school became "seiya!" or a possibility that the lyric writer likes Saint Seiya, but I think these possibilities are not so high because "seiya" is a familiar sound in Japanese and it sounds not so special for a karate shout (though a little complex).

First, thanks for the work you do - I really dig the footnotes and analysis! Excellent job!

I've been listening to Karate (a lot) and I need something confirmed/denied by fellow Japanese speakers.

This line: 「ひたすら セイヤ！ソイヤ！ 戦うんだ」

Now, I've been speaking Japanese for close to 30 years - I have a pretty good ear for it. When Su sings that line, I swear I'm hearing (romanized) "tatarunda" Of course, the word for "fight" is "tatakau" with a "ka". As far as I know, 「戦う」has no conjugated form with a "ru" in there.

So, am I just hearing things (certainly possible) and she's definitely pronouncing the "ka" sound or is she changing it to "ru"? I can hear it in Moa and Yui's chorus too. I actually do find it a little easier to sing that with the ru sound than the ka sound, so maybe it's just more expedient for a singer to do it that way.

Of course, Su can sing it any way she pleases, and since I am not a native speaker of Japanese, I know how wrong I can be (and probably am). I just wonder if I'm just hearing things or that's actually happening? What do you think?

She sings "tatakaunda", but "k" sounds weak maybe because the characteristic high frequency range of "k" is masked by the backing sound or actually reduced at the mixing.

In general, the Japanese speakers pronounce consonants weakly. It is enough for the Japanese to be able to distinguish the consonant from other consonants that are used in Japanese.

I've heard again the Japanese TV program of BABYMETAL broadcast on Apr. 4th. The narrator pronounces consonants rather strongly (because she is so trained as an announcer), and I sometimes feel it slightly irritating (so the Japanese usually pronounce them more weakly). Our three girls in the TV program pronounce "k" intermediately or weakly in the Japanese standard (or my personal feeling), and "k"s in this song sound to me more weakly than those in the TV program.

Thank you so much! So, I'm not going deaf (or crazy). I had not considered the effect of mixing (which should have been obvious), or the tendency of Japanese speakers to soften their consonants. I need to go watch the 4/4 show again and pay attention to the announcer and the girls' way of speaking.

I'm not good at English, so please permit about a grammatical slip.I checked the etymology about "Seiya" and "Soiya".

From the past, there seems to be a festival with the shout to which they say "Soiya" in the area where Tohoku-district.The shout to which they say "Sore,Ike,Yatteshimae!(Go on that, Knock them down !)" was given at a quarrel (or clash) between the portable shrines "Omikoshi".But that it's omitted"So-i-ya", it's said that it was.

And more, it "Shake" in an Ainu in Hokkaido, it's said that they say "Soiya". There is a ceremony which makes the owl a sacrifice at Ainu, and the end carries and makes them flap while swinging the owl tied to a tree, and is something to kill. Then, "Soiya" was used. And in the shout which is also a festival in Hokkaido present, "Soiya", there is a used area.

Unfortunately, "Seiya", the etymology wasn't found. I guess to have probably occurred from"Soiya".

A traditional shout at festival in Tokyo was "Wasshoi"="Wa wo seou(A god is shouldered together with the power by everyone)", and that was also used in "Sanja Festival" and "Kanda festival".

In another view, "Seiya,Soiya" the etymology "Wasshoi" It's said to be whether it isn't a reverse word."Wa-sshoi"-"Shoi-wa"-"Seiya or Soiya".

And "Wasshoi" rhythm is Quadruple time,"Seiya ,Soiya" rhythm is Double time.There is a person who says "Saiya,Soiya" is more rhythmical than "Wasshoi", and it's easy to move.So, "Seiya" and "Soiya" are the rage word which has begun to be used from the front for about 60 years.

I've always had a feeling that during the breakdown of the song (right after the girls "fall" in the music video/concert) that it was actually Moa-metal singing "Seiya soiya, tatakau-nda" and Yui-metal singing "Zenbu, zenbu togisumashite" before going back to Su-metal in the next chorus. I just hear their voices, not Su's. Is this true or was it always Su-metal singing? It's bothering me a lot more than it should, I know.

Thank you for comment. I've heard the CD again. About "Seiya soiya tatakaunda", I don't remember such whisper-singing voices of the three girls as this, so I'm not sure who is singing this part. Some sound effects may have been done. About "Zenbu zenbu togisumashite", it sounds to me as if it is divided into three parts with different tones and I think I hear 2 or 3 girls' voices (MOAMETAL & YUIMETAL?) in the last part "togisumashite" of this.

In NHK MJ broadcast on April 4th, these parts seemed to be lip sync, but SU-METAL did all these lines and MOAMETAL & YUIMETAL did "wo'oh wo'oh wo'oh".

Thank you for comment. You're welcome to use my translation. But be careful with the pages "under construction" because I may change the translation if I find better one. For this song, however, there is little possibility of that.

I think the "run!" part should be changed to "charge!", because that's kinda off. i mean you talk about fighting and never give up but in the end you run? that may be grammatically correct but there's some different interpretation there, i think

Thank you for suggestion. The interpretation of "Hashire!" (hashiru) is difficult. Usually, not "hashire" but "susume" or "ike" is used for charging or rushing at the enemy. I'm not sure which direction has the lyric writer in mind, running towards or away from the enemy, because guerrillas never give up but they often run away from their enemies.